APPLICANT'S ABSTRACT: This is a request for an ADAMHA Research Scientist Development Award (RSDA). The candidate has demonstrated a career commitment to the alcohol research area, and this RSDA award will provide him with the time and support needed to expand and enhance his skills as a scientist. In particular, the RSDA award will afford the candidate the opportunity to develop and establish neurochemical skills which will complement his demonstrated expertise in psychopharmacology, and make him a more well- rounded, competitive, and productive scientist in the alcohol field. The acquisition of such research tools will provide the candidate with a powerful repertoire of research skills that will better enable him to realize his scientific goals, as well as his full potential as a scientist. Hence, this award will provide the candidate with both the resources and time commitment necessary to see professional growth come to fruition. With support from this RSDA proposal, the candidate intends to develop research expertise in neuropharmacology techniques so that they may be incorporated in his overall alcohol research program. Currently, the candidate has two active funded research themes. One research project is focused on the behavioral teratogenic effects of ethanol and the other theme is directed toward examining the role of the GABA-A receptor complex in mediating acute and chronic effects of ethanol. As detailed in the research plan of this application and a corresponding R01 proposal, the candidate intends to apply newly acquired neurochemical skills to more directly examine the role of GABA-A (and NMDA) receptors in a model of potentiated ethanol withdrawal that he has established in his laboratory. This includes, but is not limited to, radioligand binding procedures and measurement of GABA-A receptor-operated 36Cl-flux in brain tissue homogenate samples. To accomplish these goals, the candidate will collaborate with Dr. Marlene Wilson of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, who has extensive experience in conducting these neurochemical procedures. In addition, although not a primary focus of this application, these same neurochemical skills may also be incorporated in other aspects of the candidate's research program. For example, receptor binding procedures may be employed to more directly address neurochemical alterations in prenatal ethanol-exposed offspring that have been indirectly identified by the candidate through his psychopharmacology work in this area. Thus, funding this RSDA application will not only foster continued professional growth and maturity as a researcher in the alcohol field, but will also greatly contribute to the overall enhancement of the quality and breadth of his research program. This, along with his improved ability to train graduate and postdoctoral students in modern- day multidisciplinary alcohol research, will hopefully contribute to advancing our knowledge of the CNS mechanism underlying acute and chronic actions of ethanol.